Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to making food products. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for facilitating making a plurality of different food products by a plurality of different food product makers at a single locale, even when two or more of the food-making processes are incompatible. In further particularly, the invention relates to a system for facilitating making a plurality of different cheeses by a plurality of different cheesemakers at a single location, even when two or more cheesemaking processes are incompatible due to a possibility of cross-contamination of one process by microbes present in another, affecting cheese product quality, or by the need to maintain separate and confidential the proprietary information, processes, equipment, know-how, and other trade secrets, etc. of different cheesemakers.
The invention is best illustrated in the context of the manufacture of specialty cheeses. In this context specialty cheeses will be understood to be any of numerous varieties known or which will be developed which have distinctive properties and/or distinctive methods of production associated with them. Specialty cheeses have traditionally been produced in relatively small, separate facilities, rather than in larger, shared facilities.
It will be appreciated that cheesemaking is both art and science. As mentioned, many cheesemaking processes, ingredients, equipment modifications and other know-how are proprietary. They are maintained as trade secrets by the cheesemakers who use them in exercising their own special xe2x80x9cartisticxe2x80x9d and technical skills. This argues for the maintenance of separate physical plants, even though considerable disadvantage in production costs due to the small scale of many if not most of such plants is a result.
Moreover, cross-contamination of cheeses by microorganisms is problematic, and also has conventionally supported maintaining separate facilities. Contamination of a cheesemaking vat by a bacterium associated with production of one or more other and different varieties of cheese is very undesirable. As an example, it is often the case that yeast is found to be present on Feta cheese as the curd develops acidity in the make room. Often this yeast is acceptable, as the Feta will be immersed in brine before consumption. But the yeast can become airborne and can be detrimental to the manufacture of other varieties of specialty cheese. Likewise, otherwise benign cheese culture can cross-contaminate different cheese varieties causing unacceptable finished product. As an example, cheddar cheese culture can become resident in and on walls and ceilings, and can travel to subsequent cheese vats via small, even mist-like, water droplets. This can cause variation in the ratio of coccus to rods in a particular vat after the addition of cheese culture used to make other specialty cheeses. The change in starter culture can result in an unacceptable cheese end product. This problem is especially troublesome if the subsequent vat(s) of cheese are intended to not have any starter culture at all.
Furthermore, another reason specialty cheeses conventionally are made in separate, small, and often less than optimally efficient facilities is that the specialty cheesemaker often needs to have no time limitations to access and use of the facilities. Known conventional shared cheesemaking facilities usually require careful scheduling of use of the facilities, which is anathema to specialty cheesemakers, who often need to extend the time required to make or cure their cheeses. Moreover, product quantities are in some cases relatively small, and attempting to produce a specialty cheese in a conventional facility is often not viable because there is not enough volume to fill the capacity of the large facility.
Most specialty cheeses made in large facilities are made under conditions where cheesemakers have had to share the facility with makers of other cheese varieties. This often results in compromised quality. As will be appreciated, when makers of different varieties of cheese share a facility, the greater the difference between varieties, the less chance there is that trade secrets will be compromised. However, the chances that the product will be adversely affected by cross-contamination generally increases with increased difference between cheeses made. Therefore, prior schemes of sharing facilities have inherent conflicting objectives.
These considerations have conventionally required maintenance of separate plants by specialty cheesemakers. This has formerly been the case however small and inefficient the facilities were. In recent years, increased pressure to reduce production costs has been placed on specialty cheesemakers due to rising global competition. Today, in general, specialty cheeses made at small facilities still maintain a quality advantage over similar cheeses made at larger factories, but production costs at smaller plants require a higher selling price, and cheeses made in larger factories enjoy a manufacturing cost advantage enabling a lower price which threatens continued viability of higher quality specialty cheese production.
It has been recognized that the opportunity to share facility and administrative costs holds significant advantages for relatively small cheesemaking entities. However, until the present invention, a workable way to obtain these advantages without risking compromise of cheese product quality by use of a shared facility was not known.
The invention concerns a system for reducing costs associated with making a plurality of food products incompatible in a single food product-making facility by a plurality of food product makers, comprising: 1) providing a plurality of discrete food product making plants configured for use by the plurality of food product makers; 2) providing a common area facility comprising facilities sharable by the users of the food product making plants; 3) occupying the plurality of food product making plants by the plurality of food product makers; 4) operating the plurality of food product making plants and common area cooperatively; and 5) sharing use and costs associated with use of the common area facility by and among the plurality of food product makers.
In another and more detailed aspect, the invention provides a system for creating and operating a specialty cheesemaking cooperative facility, comprising: 1) a plurality of specialty cheesemaking plants, each separated from each other so as to prevent cross-contamination by microorganisms, each specialty cheesemaking plant being enabled to make cheese different from each other; and 2) a common plant facility facilitating cheesemaking at each of the plurality of specialty cheesemaking plants, comprising facilities sharable by the plurality of specialty cheesemaking plants, whereby facilities and costs sharable are shared and costs of cheese making are reduced.
Further aspects, features and advantages of the system in accordance with the invention will be apparent with reference to the following detailed description and the appended drawings, which illustrate by example principles of the invention. However, it will be understood that these are given by way of example, and not by way of limitation.